Mixing brands.

[Mitch_bassman]

What's your opinion on mixing brands of amps and cabs together?
Eg. TC head with Aguilar cab, GK head with hartke cab, etc.

Are heads made to go with the same branded cab?

All opinions welcome.
Cheers.

 

[danielfnj96]

Supposedly many companies design their heads and cabs to be complimentary to each other but i prefer to mix brands up so i get the best of each company. For example i'm not that crazy about hartke cabs but i love their heads and i don't like marshall bass heads but their cabs are killer so i have a hartke head with a marshall cab.

 

[grey area]

GK MB FUSION head
MESA PH cab or
TC RS cab
i love my sound, i will be trying some GK neos soon but unless they deliver god like tone i will stick with what i have.

 

[DigitalMan]

No technical issues. If you like what you hear then you're doing it right.

Normal considerations such as ohms and power handling still apply - just as they do with same brand products.

Aesthetically is can deeply disturb the little OCD person living deep inside all of us - or is it just me?

 

[CL400Peavey]

IMHO there are a lot of great amps out there, but very few cabs worth bothering with. The majority of those cabs are manufactured by companies that only build cabs and do not offer amps.

 

[Lonesomedave]

absolutely no problem at all....

HEAD...Fender Superbassman, 300 watts

CAB...Ampeg Heritage 4x10

love the sound....tried out several combinations before we purchased this one

 

[Mitch_bassman]

Aesthetically is can deeply disturb the little OCD person living deep inside all of us - or is it just me?

Haha well put. And it's not just you, it comes with the trade.

 

[kilgoja]

many have done it.

flea used to play a GK head through a mesa 2x15 cab.

the first bass player for weezer had an orange head through some other cab. maybe an ampeg? i dunno. the pic is in the blue album which is considered the best weezer album ever made by most fans.

 

[JakeAndAirwaves]

What's your opinion on mixing brands of amps and cabs together?
Eg. TC head with Aguilar cab, GK head with hartke cab, etc.

Are heads made to go with the same branded cab?

All opinions welcome.
Cheers.

I use a GK MB200 with a Hartke 210xl cab and I love it.

 

[flatfender]

Markbass heads thru GK or Eden cabinets work for me now.

The only same amp/speaker setups I've had were Hartke & Peavey. Both were mediocre compared to what I use now.

 

[silvertripper]

Shuttle 9.0 head
TCE RS210 & RS212 Cabs
=
Heaven!

 

[IPYF]

I do it. My amp is a GK and my cab is a Trace Elliot. Certainly not made for each other, but I am very happy with my tone.

 

[P Town]

I have a number of Ampeg heads, and cabs. And, I have one Mesa Boogie Diesel Road ready 115, which works great with the Ampegs.
(With apologies to Mesa), I removed their logo from the cab, because it just did not look right with all the Ampeg stuff.

I promise to put the MB logo back on the cab one of these days.

 

[JimmyM]

I don't do it anymore but I have in the past. It's fine as long as you buy stuff you like. I think CL400 grossly exaggerates about the cabs, though

 

[bigswifty1]

Not a problem. I run an Aguilar preamp, GK head, TC Electronic cab(s).
Mike

 

[makanudo]

I don't see the problem, many people do it with guitars too!

I'm thinking of getting an Aguilart TH 350 and sitting it on top of a TC Elec 2x12 because im too poor to afford a legit rig

 

[Dave W]

I do it all the time. I'm not sure I've ever had a fully matching rig.

 

[chadds]

I don't do it anymore but I have in the past. It's fine as long as you buy stuff you like. I think CL400 grossly exaggerates about the cabs, though

If he's saying that some cab makers who focus on just that make a better than average product than his opinion though his opinion holds water. Same could be said for companies that build just amps. You may get in production the best of their strength.

It's like ordering coffee at a bar. It's okay but it's not the best coffee to be found.

Back on topic. Mixing brands may bring out for the bassist some quality they are after. I've heard KJung say, "well brand X head brings out or supports the upper mid bump inherent in cab Y. The pronounced mids in this head balance the tame mids in this cab." I paraphrase here!

 

[eriky4003]

From some of the gushing compliments I've read on this forum, I'd say choose what you want from the best makers. Knowing what I know now, I would probably purchase an amp from one company that I was comfortable with and purchase cab/cabs from another.

 

[CL400Peavey]

I think CL400 grossly exaggerates about the cabs, though

Let me re-emphasize.

IMHO there are a lot of great amps out there, but very few cabs worth bothering with. The majority of those cabs are manufactured by companies that only build cabs and do not offer amps.

If he's saying that some cab makers who focus on just that make a better than average product than his opinion though his opinion holds water. Same could be said for companies that build just amps. You may get in production the best of their strength.

It's like ordering coffee at a bar. It's okay but it's not the best coffee to be found.

+1

Its partly that, but also IMHO I feel that there are a lot of manufacturers out there that have a great heritage of building world class amps, but they have not given much notice to improving their cabs. I am not saying people should love and play what works for them, but rather lets not mix objective performance advaces with subjective gear superstitions.